Chapter 1: Evil Dragon Pond

Updated: 1 day ago

 

 

Fragrant breeze, fluttering immortal music, beautiful purples and brilliant reds mixed into a mess, unending laughter of demons.

 

姹紫嫣红 (chà zǐ yān hóng)fig. beautiful purples and brilliant reds (idiom); lit. beautiful flowers

 

From within, a figure stood out. In an embroidered brocade with a belt, holy and noble, as if everything around him exists for him.

 

From afar, a thin voice resounded, showing anxiety: "Deity Lord! Deity Lord!"

 

Amidst the laughter, he noticed it, waved his hand, and the surroundings immediately fell silent.

“What’s the matter?” A gentle voice said.

 

“Can…I be your empress?” She shy said, with expectations.

Laughter exploded.

“What are you laughing at! I like Deity Lord, I just want to be the empress!” She said, half embarrassed.

“Then cultivate immortality.” He said with a smile.

……

In the blink of an eye, the scenery has changed. Tides of clouds rolls over and over, vast and endless. From within, two blurry silhouette s can be seen, one looked tall and the other, slightly shorter.

 

“Begging Deity Lord to grant this wish.” Said a thin female voice.

“We are not of the same kind. If you insist on doing this, it is going against the heavens and will be punished by the heavens.”

The man’s voice is still so gentle and pleasing to the ear. “Humans have six reincarnations, but you don’t. If you cut off the fundamental, you will only end up with a destroyed soul.”

 

“So what! I just wish to repay him for the rest of my life.” Her words were full of arrogance.

The man was silent for a moment, then sighed: “ This is Yao pond water, if you drink it, allowing you to change back to your original form and your soul will be able to reincarnate with him.”

“Thank you, Deity Lord.” She said joyfully.

“Upon drinking this water, you will no longer be of my race, in exchange for a lifetime together, is he more important than becoming the empress?”

Silence.

“I am just a small demon, not fated with immortality, Deity Lord is……too far away from me.”

“Falling into reincarnation, breaking the fate of immortality, you……”

“I don’t want to be immortal, I just want to be a mortal forever.”

“No regrets?”

“No regrets.”

Her whole body was in pain, feeling as if her tendons and bones were being pulled out. Hong Ning screamed and awoke from the pain. She sat up on the bed, drenched in sweat, felt that her skin was intact, and wiped the cold sweat off her forehead.

“Hong Ning! Are you awake?” Knocked at the door.

“Ah, I’m fine.”

“Master is calling you to come eat.”

“Coming.”

The sound outside the door disappeared. Hong Ning quickly got out of bed, changed her clothes neatly, and ran out the door.

A thatched wooden table, very simple.

There were 2 dishes and 1 soup on the table, it is very bland. Three people were sitting at the table, but Hong Ning ate alone. Although they were sitting at the side, they only had plain water in front of them. One of them in black clothes looks like a man in his 30s, while the other looks like a calm youth of around 17 or 18.

The man’s tone was slightly affectionate, “ Hong Ning, your complexion doesn’t look good.”

Hong Ning buried her face in the rice and said: “ I had a nightmare.”

The man frowned: “Nightmare again?”

Seeing him worried, Hong Ning hurriedly smiled: “Anyway I have been having it for so many years, hasn’t it been all right? What is master worried for.”

The man nodded: “Today is the 15th, Yang energy has declined. Just nice your Shi Xiong (senior brother) can absorb the sun’s essence. I would also like to retreat. Since you don’t cultivate Taoism, why don’t you go pluck some medicines back.”

Hong Ning responded and muttered: “Cultivating Taoism all day long, what’s the point.”

The man instructed: “On every 15th, when the Yin energy is in full swing, all those wood enchanting spirits will come out to absorb the essence of heaven and earth. You can’t go to far, be cautious of everything and you must come back after noon.”

“I know I know, you say this all the time.” Hong Ning complained, then pointed at the dishes on the table and smiled, “you all cultivate immortality, one always takes medicine, the other only drinks water, you don’t have my appetite.” After speaking, she picked up a chopsticks worth of vegetables and sighed: “Master’s cooking skills is getting better!”

The teenager next to her snorted.

The man in black clothes shook his head and smiled: “The art of fasting, leads to longevity, you always refuse to cultivate.”

Hong Ning doesn’t care: “Pure heartedly cultivating immortality every day, there are so many good things in Hong Chen that I won’t be able to enjoy, what’s the good in a long life, in this life I don’t have the fortune to become immortal. I’d still better be peacefully assisting you guys, in future when you become immortal, don’t you forget me.”

 

红尘 (hóng chén)This has 2 meanings; 1. indicates a flourishing and bustling place. 2. refers to the 'world of mortals' in Buddhism.

 

The teenager coldly said: “Long life is naturally good, we are still young but you will already be an old woman.”

Hong Ning rolled her eyes: “Whatever you say, I will not cultivate.”

Teenager: “Born with a mortal heart.”

The mountain streams flowed and converged into a pond, it is April, the pond here radiates strong bursts of cold air, and the left bank is a steep cliff.

 

She perspired too much at night and her whole body is sticky. Hong Ning put down a basket filled with herbs, took off her clothes and jumped into the pond.

Blue water rippled in the cold pond, the water is clear yet it is so deep that the bottom can’t be seen. It is know as Evil Dragon Pond. As for whether there is really any evil dragons below the surface, Hong Ning who has been living in the mountains for more than 10 years, is no longer afraid, because even master did not detect any demonic energy inside, it is probably just a name. Even if there was a dragon, it would’ve been taken away by someone long ago, or suffered a catastrophe.

Actually in the past, even if someone told Hong Ning that dragons exist, she would definitely laugh and dismiss it as a superstition. However, since coming to this world, she has witnessed countless incredible things happen with her own eyes in the past 10 years, and her scientific beliefs has long since been overthrown.

That’s right, before she time travelled, her name was Hong Ling. She was a fully fledged modern person.

If you ask how she time travelled, up till now she hasn’t figured it out. All she knows is that she fainted while sightseeing among the camellia bushes,. When she woke up, she was a swaddled baby abandoned on the road side, it was her current master who rescued her.

 

Master’s name is Wen Xin, Shi Xiong’s name is Bai Ling.

 

Being a baby is a bit unacceptable, but what was even more unacceptable is that the master who looks weak and elegant in 30s is actually 133 years old! And Bai Ling Shi Xiong is even more, 396 years old “elder”, he is an ice demon.

Since young, she has been practising the art of strengthening the body with master, not feeling cold soaking in the cool stream water, looking at her white and tender small arms and shoulders, Hong Ning smiled bitterly. In a certain era, she was already 22, but now, she is only 12. She has grown from a baby into a girl, yet there is no much changes in master and Shi Xiong. You can’t help but admit that cultivating immortality is beneficial to beauty. If it was in the modern era, opening a fasting beauty salon, no eating, you can lose weight, improve your face and even save money, there is probably a lot of ladies willing to patronise.

10 years, memories relating to that era has faded, the only memory worth remembering is the similar sounding name.

 

Could this time travel have something to do with that strange dream? She has also privately asked master Wen Xin about this, but master Wen Xin does not know the exact reason, he only said that her past life may have a lot to do with this woman.

Hong Ning soaked in the water and contemplated.

At this moment, not far from her, the originally dark blue water suddenly started to ripple, getting bigger and bigger and gradually began to make a ‘gudong’ sound.

 

Frequent contact with certain things has made her senses extra sensitive. Hong Ning startled and felt something was wrong, looking closely, the water surface in the middle of the pool is seething, as if boiling. At the same time, demonic energy burst into the sky. She was horrified and immediately jumped to the shore.

Her left leg got tangled in something.

Ice cold, slippery, and a bit hard.

 

A water snake that has become a spirit? Goosebumps appeared on Hong Ning’s skin, she quickly looked down, the head and tail of that thing in the deep pool couldn’t be seen, she could only see it’s body is as thick as a bucket, pitch black as ink, it’s upper body even had hard scales!

This is no snake!

 

Omg, I actually came across this thing! Hong Ning screamed in horror: “ Master- Shi Xiong-”

Although the dragon’s body is slippery, her leg was tightly wrapped and could not be retracted.

Unexpectedly, there really is an evil dragon in the pond, she heard that there are evil dragons that eats people, using human souls to cultivate soul beads. Don’t say that there is no magic weapon around her now, even if there is, she is unable to control it alone. Wen Xin and Bai Ling are both practising cultivation, the sound transmission amulet is not here. What to do? Only then did Hong Ning regret not seriously practising spells.

 

In desperation, her survival instincts were aroused, she tried her best to remain calm and opened her mouth to recite the escape spell.

 

At this moment, the dragon suddenly changed to wrap around her waist and fiercely pulled her down.

Water flooded from all directions, rushing into her nose, mouth and ears. Hong Ning was choked and immediately regretted. She should have recited the water avoidance spell first. Now that her mouth is full of water, she can’t recite any spells at all.

In the water, a gloomy smug laughter could be heard faintly, like thunder.

Fortunately, Hong Ning was naturally bold. Although she was frightened, she still kept her eyes wide open. Master clearly did not detect any demonic energy here, how could an evil dragon suddenly appear!

Borrowing the dim of the sky, she finally found the reason.

 

About 10 feet beneath the water, there was a hole in the stone wall about the height of half a human.

Hong Ning suddenly realised that this hole must lead to something else. The evil dragon is usually not in the pond at all. Today it came out to absorb the sun’s essence, letting her bump into it, no wonder there was no demonic energy before!

She clearly felt the trembling of the scales on her waist, disgust and fear washing over her, the feeling of suffocation getting stronger. She couldn’t help struggling desperately, but how strong can a 12 year old be? The dragon rolled her and dragged her to the bottom of the pond.

In the moment of despair, a golden light above her head fell like a meteor.

 

Hong Ning is shocked.

The black dragon also felt that it was strange and stopped its movements.

In an instant, that thing had fallen to the bottom of the pond, as if it had been smashed and turned into innumerable small pieces. The bottom of the 5 foot deep pond looks like the vast night sky in summer, embellished with countless stars.

 

The stars twinkled, and began to sprout!

 

Just like the fast forward scenes in TV shows, the branches and leaves spread rapidly, buds soon grew and it even bloomed into big, beautiful flowers!

 

Not just one, but hundreds of flowers blooming.

 

Gorgeous peonies, colourful peach blossoms, petite apricot blossoms, delicate hibiscus, tranquil chrysanthemums, proud begonias, fresh red lotuses…flowers of different seasons appeared here at the same time, beautiful purples and brilliant reds, blooming one after another, the splendid sight brightens the gloomy bottom of the pond, golden light shining, full of auspiciousness, seems to have turned into a hundred flowers garden.

 

As if there is wind blowing, flowers rised and fell.

 

Hong Ning returned to her senses, turned her face, and saw the black dragon clearly. She saw it is pitch black all over its body, and light flickered when its scales opened and closed, both eyes like lamps, horns on its head, its appearance was vicious.

 

The dragon also noticed something was wrong, reluctant to give up the delicious food in its hand, decided to quickly finish up, raising its head to bite.

Hong Ning closed her eyes.

With a roar, the restraint on her body loosened and then he water around her surged.

 

Hong Ning thought it was weird, opened her eyes only to see the dragon desperately shaking its head and waving its tail. Its eyes were as red as torches, as if something has entered its eyes. The scales on its whole body were open, with countless flower petals in the gaps like sharp needles.

Finally, the dragon was in great pain, tumbling towards the hole in the wall to escape.

Hong Ning was feeling strange, there was something beneath her feet supporting her, rising to the top.

 

It was a huge black camellia. The flower wheel supported her feet, bringing her to the shore and disappearing. Immediately, a pair of hands brought her into its embrace.

 

 

T/N thoughts: this took a lot longer than I expected to translate. I'll try to update at least once a week.